Word: ciskei
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first time the blue (for freedom) and white (for peace) flag was hoisted in public, the flagpole snapped in two. Ciskei may not be paradise, but it is undoubtedly persistent. When the black "homeland" threw itself a raucous second-birthday party, the flagpole stood firm. As motorcycle teams, tribal dancers and drum majorettes performed in the local stadium, President Lennox Leslie Wongoma Sebe, 57, Homburg-hatted and morning-suited, cruised through the streets of Bisho, his capital city, in a black Cadillac. Then, guarded by a gang of security men in ill-fitting suits and sunglasses, Sebe led a flag...
...many outsiders, a more suitable bird would be the ostrich. Ciskei (pop. 2 million), carved out of unwanted land on South Africa's southeastern coast, is the most ambitious of the four resettlement areas that South Africa has created as "national states" and used as a dumping ground for 6 million blacks. Like the others (Bophuthatswana, Transkei and Venda), Ciskei is recognized as a state only by South Africa. The rest of the world regards it as just another offshoot of South Africa's 25-year-old policy of whittling away its non-white majority...
...Sebe has seized upon the dubious gift with ebullience. Although unemployment in Ciskei has been running at 50%, its leader remains recklessly spendthrift. Just two weeks ago he announced a lavish scheme to furnish his dirt-poor homeland with an international airport, a harbor and an air force. Such tragicomic aspirations and the tyrannical rule that enforces them have made Sebe's fief something of an embarrassment even to its stepmother. Said the moderate Johannesburg Star: "Ciskei has become a byword for all the worst excesses of banana republics...
...explained that the raid, unofficially named "Operation Blanket," had been a pre-emptive strike against A.N.C. militants who had come to Lesotho over the past few months. According to Viljoen, the A.N.C. members were planning attacks in South Africa against political leaders in the black "homelands" of Transkei and Ciskei. South African defense officials displayed a rocket launcher, rifles and some grenades of Communist-bloc origin that they said had been captured in the raid...
...power sharing. I stand for the idea of a confederation of independent states, cooperating on matters like water conservation, tourism, economic development. We have come to an agreement on regional development with Transkei, Venda, Bophuthatswana and Ciskei [the already established black "homelands"]. Now then, you have the coloreds and the South African Asians. The President's Council [an appointive body established to consider constitutional change] is at present considering ways and means of enabling [these communities] to share in joint decisions, making that possible without disturbing or destroying the rights of others...